


The Mechanic

by raggamuffin44



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, and it makes Mando SOFT, both Mando and reader slowly falling for each other, child loves the reader, platonic to start
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:55:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22268284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raggamuffin44/pseuds/raggamuffin44
Summary: The Razor Crest's hyperdrive malfunctions and it brings Mando to your planet and into your town. You're the only mechanic available, and he distrusts you because your speciality lies with droids, but he has no other choice. After seeing how well you work, and how much the Child likes you, he wonders if you'd want to stick around.
Relationships: The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)/Reader, The Mandalorian/Reader
Comments: 25
Kudos: 132





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a request I got on my tumblr @buckyodinson :  
> "Hi! I have a Mando request for ya! What if the reader is a droid mechanic and Mando hires them to repair his hyperdrive. They’re the only person in the town he lands in that’s anywhere capable of fixing it. He doesn’t trust the reader on account of their profession, but they do good work fairly quickly and the Kid is already head over heels for them. Maybe he’ll keep the mechanic around for further repairs?"

Mando was in the far reaches of the outer rim when his ship was suddenly thrown out of hyperspace. He was shook forward in the pilot’s seat, and the Child’s crib jostled about before dropping to the floor.

He fiddled with the hyperdrive controls and came to the quick conclusion that the system had malfunctioned. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, as the ship hummed and whirred around him. The Child stirred in his crib because of the commotion, and peeked his head out from his blankets, cooing slightly.

Mando makes quick work of booting up his tracking systems, to find the nearest system he can get to. He finds the nearest planet is Er’Kit, a desert planet that has remained mostly untouched since the Clone Wars all those years ago. A few hours later, the Crest is approaching Er’Kit and now this close, he locates a small town and enters the coordinates for it, before letting autopilot take them the rest of the way there. Mando climbs down into the hull, taking the Child with him, and placing it back in its crib before placing the crib in his quarters.

He knows it’s a pointless exercise but raises a finger to the Child and slowly speaks, “Stay in here. I’m going into town to find someone who can fix this, so just stay in here.” The Child looks up at Mando with his bright eyes, smiling, and Mando steps back and shuts the door to his quarters. He’s only a few steps from the ramp door when he hears the familiar hiss of the door to his quarters opening, and the even more familiar cooing of the Child. He lets out a long sigh that crackles through the modulator, but turns around and picks the Child up nonetheless. He places him back in the crib, and presses a few buttons on his arm gauntlet to pull the crib alongside him as he walks.

The walk to the town is quiet, and the town isn’t much different. It’s not as bustling as the towns Mando usually comes to when he’s looking for parts or a bounty, but there’s still plenty of people staring at him as he walks past them. He’s hard not to notice, covered head to toe in newly forged Beskar. He hears the hushed whispers of the townsfolk when their eyes move from his form to the small crib that trails behind him, and he fiddles with his gauntlet, which pulls the crib even closer.

He eventually finds what he’s looking for. While there’s no explicit signage out front, the discarded piles of fragmented metal scattered around the outside tells him all he needs to know. The circular door opens and he steps into the dealership. He sees many work stations, all empty but one, in the back corner of the room. He sees you hunkered over your workstation, tinkering with an interface from an R5 unit which is sat powered down by your feet. You had grease smudges across your face, and goggles that reminded him of a certain Ugnaught friend of his. There are a few mechanic droids lined up against the back wall, all seemingly being charged up.

He moved slowly towards you, not wanting to startle you while you were working with a blowtorch. You noticed him out of the corner of your eye and abruptly turned the blowtorch off and lifted your head to look at the mysterious Beskar-clad man stood before you. You placed your torch on the table and lifted your glasses from your eyes to rest them atop your head before smiling at the man. You straightened your back and moved to stand, an array of cracks coming from your back, seemingly protesting the new posture and you grimace, and you’re sure you see the helmeted head flinch slightly.

“How can I be of service to you, Mandalorian?” You rested an elbow on your workstation and looked up at him, but noticed his gaze was now on the droid at your feet.

When you received no reply from him, you pushed the droid with your feet an inch or so, and scoffed when his hand reached for his blaster, “It’s powered down, my friend. It’s brain is scattered all over my station here. How can I help?”

His helmet lifted up to you, and the empty stare that came from it enticed you. You’re sure that very same stare had intimidated many before you, but you wouldn’t give in so easily. You stood even straighter, raised your grease-smudged chin and placed your hands on your hips.

“The hyperdrive of my ship malfunctioned, and I need a mechanic to look at it. The ship is an hour or so from here. Is there anyone else here who can help?” He looked around the empty dealership, anticipating your answer.

“What’s wrong with me? Don’t want a woman meddling with your cockpit?” You smirked at him, watching his posture shift slightly.

“You’re a droid mechanic, are you not? I’m not sure how much help you’d be fixing a hyperdrive. It’s a lot different.”

“Well, as it turns out, this is my dealership, and I’m pretty well-versed in the mechanics of a lot of ships, so I’m sure I can handle whatever piece of junk you’re flying around in. What do you have against droids anyhow?”

“I think I’ll look elsewhere, thank y-“

“Good luck with that. My dealership is the only one in town, and work’s been slow recently so I let all the boys have a few days off, since there’s a festival in the nearest city this week. I’m sure they’re all too drunk to stand already, so it’s only me here for the foreseeable future… and sure you could walk to the city, but it’d take you days. Days I’m assuming you don’t have?” At that question you gestured to the crib, which was now open, and the Child had lifted it’s head to look around. Mando scrambled to close the crib before looking back at you and sighing deeply.

“Fine. But just you, no droids.” He points at the droids behind you, and you nod.

You lift up your bag of tools, and grab a few more off of your workstation and lay them gently in the bag, before rummaging through a series of drawers and shelves, picking up items you’ll need to fix a faulty hyperdrive. Mando scrutinises your every move, before relaxing at the smile on your face when you lift your bag and walk towards him, “Lead the way.”

You both walks out of the door, and you drop your bag on the floor while you lock up shop. When you turn to grab your bag again, you notice the Mandalorian is already carrying it for you, and has started to walk away. You quickly catch up with him and attempt to grab the bag from his hands, but he doesn’t let up.

“I’m a big girl, I can handle my own tools.” You objected, but he still held onto the bag.

“Your arms will be tired by the time we get to my ship, and it’ll just prolong the amount of time it takes to fix the problem.”

“Trust me, tin can. I’m plenty strong enough, I’ve walked all the way to the city with more tools than this just fine.” You said smugly but he said nothing more. You fell into silence and remained that way until you approached the Crest.

“Well no wonder your hyperdrive is mangled, this ship is ancient. I’m surprised it still runs.” You marvel as you walk up the ramp door.

He leads you through to the cockpit and you remove the main floor panel beside the pilot seat, and set to work. Mando stands in the doorway, still untrustworthy of you. He still can’t get the image of you helping a droid out of his mind. He knows he’s being overly skeptical, but can’t help the way he feels about droids.

You stick your head back out from the floor and stare back at him, “If you’re just gonna stand there, you may as well help me.” When he makes no attempt to move, you roll your eyes and speak up again, “pass me that wrench please?”

He slowly does as you ask, and you disappear below the panels again, and he hears you grunt before a loud clang erupts through the cockpit. He leans his head down to check you’re okay, and when he sees you’re not injured, he leaves the cockpit, going to busy himself with cleaning his weapons.

You’re none the wiser, and call up to him asking for your blowtorch. You receive no reply and climb back up, muttering to yourself with a frown on your face, only to see the Child in his place. Your features soften as you see his bright eyes land on you, but you panic slightly when you notice he has the handle of your blowtorch in his mouth. You lurch up, and softly pry it from his grip. He protests and coos at you, and you hand him a spanner, which he happily bites instead.

Mando comes up to check on you after a few hours, and from outside the cockpit he can hear you talking to the Child, who babbles back at you, but you talk as if you’re actually having an engaging conversation with him. Din catches himself smiling at this, but steels his expression before opening the door to the cockpit, even though it made no difference, as nobody would see it.

You emerge from underneath the floor, your face sweaty and dirty, but you smile brightly first at the Child then up at him, “It shouldn’t be much longer! A lot of your circuits were fried, because this ship is so old, and it doesn’t look like anyone’s been down here in years, so I’ve tried to replace as many as I could with what I have. Some of those circuits tripped the system that controls the hyperdrive, so once I’ve tidied these last few circuits up, you should hopefully be up and running! Just stop in at a mechanic every so often to double check down here, otherwise you’ll be stuck somewhere else with a mechanic a lot less friendly than me, who’ll charge a lot more.” As you speak, the Child reaches his arms out to hold onto one of your fingers, and you smile warmly down at him.

You dipped back down again and the Child turned to face him. Mando couldn’t deny the pang in his chest when he saw how much the Child enjoyed your company. Someone who could give him some semblance of love or affection that he had no idea how to give.

You emerged again to grab another tool and noticed Mando was still stood there, “Everything okay?”

“Yes. Everything’s fine. I came to ask if you’d like anything to eat, I don’t have much but there’s a few things…” he spoke uncertainly.

The soft tone of his voice took you by surprise and it put a smile back on your face, “I’m okay, thank you. A glass of water would be nice, though, it’s a little warm down here?”

Mando turned on his heel and the Child followed slowly after him, and you smiled after the pair of them. You got back to work, and emerged again a few minutes later to find a glass of water, and even though you said you weren’t hungry, a small bowl of broth sat by your bag of tools. You slowly sipped some of the broth, and was surprised that it wasn’t half bad. You were soon finished with your work, and climbed back into the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot seat while you finished your broth. The Child has graced you with it’s presence again, and you chatted idly with it once more, conversing as if it was actually giving you comprehensible answers.

Mando once again was stood outside the cockpit listening intently to you and the Child, and hearing how happy it sounded to have someone to babble to. He wondered if she’d like to stick around. It’d be convenient, for sure. Someone to watch over the kid, and to keep the ship in good shape, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, someone to keep him company in the vastness of the galaxy.

He took a deep breath and entered the cockpit, nodding at you when you gave him a mock salute. You placed your bowl on the ground, and noticed the Child was reaching his arms up to you. You looked at Mando for approval, and he gestured for you to continue. You picked up the Child and set him down on your lap, beaming at him. He played with your fingers, and you laughed at his little babbles and coos, before your attention was drawn to the Mandalorian when he cleared his throat.

“Is the hyperdrive fixed?” He asked monotonously.

“Yes! All fixed, but like I said earlier, there’s only so much I can do on a ship this old, you should definitely stop in somewhere every now and then and check it’s all holding up okay down there.”

“About that…” he fell into silence, and you simply waited for him to find the words he was searching for. His helmet lifted slightly, and for the first time you were a little intimidated by the glare from the black slits in the Beskar, “I may be overstepping a line here… but how would you feel about maybe sticking around?”

To say you were shocked was an understatement. From the stories you’d heard about Mandalorian’s, they were usually loners. You look back down at the child in your lap, and realise the Mandalorian sat in front of you was cut from different cloth.

He clarifies when he notices your wide eyes, “You said yourself, the hyperdrive will need checking, and I’d rather you be here on the ship when it inevitably gives out again, rather than finding some other shady mechanic to do it. Also, the kid seems to have taken a shine to you…”

You think it over for a moment, and Mando didn’t push you for an answer. He was asking a lot of you, and was expecting a flat-out ‘No’, so the fact that you were thinking about it gave him hope.

“… I think I’d like that.” you murmured.

His head whipped up, “Really?”.

“I mean… I’ve always wanted to get out of here and see the galaxy, but I’ve never had the means to. I don’t even have a speeder,” you scoff, “but travelling with you and this little womp rat can’t be much worse than life here in this little town.” your smile grows when you notice the Child has fallen asleep in your arms.

Underneath his helmet, his smile is equally large. He can’t believe it actually worked. “Okay then. It’s late, so you can stay on the ship tonight, but we can go back to town tomorrow to grab anything you need, and we’ll head off. Is that okay?”

“Sounds good, Mandalorian.”

“Call me Mando.”

“Okay… sounds good, _Mando_.” he liked hearing that fall from your mouth more than ‘Mandalorian’, and maybe one day soon he’ll hear you speak his real name.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following day, you pack up your stuff on Er'Kit and start your life aboard the Razor Crest with Mando,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Sorry for the wait! I've had a hectic week at university and at work, so today was the first time I've been able to properly sit and think about this story. I hope you enjoy!

That night, Mando set you up in his quarters. You protested at first, not wanting to overstep, but he insisted. He told you he doesn’t sleep much out of habit, most of the time he’d just rest in the cockpit. You laid awake for most of the night, questioning your decision. You’ve known the Mandalorian for less than a day, and somehow, you’ve agreed to travel with him.  


Sure, the child was cute and all. But how comes the Beskar-clad man already trusts you to look after it. The child clearly means a lot to the man, and you’re unsure of how this odd family came to be, but you found it extremely strange that he was willing to trust you to look after the child after only a few hours of knowing you. You were flattered but confused. At some point, the child interrupts your thinking. The whirr of the door startles you and you look over to see the child with his little arms raised to you. You pick him up and place him on the cot next to you, and he immediately curls up against your chest and falls asleep. After a little more thinking, you soon follow.  


In the morning, Mando comes down from the cockpit to wake you. The door is still open, and he can’t help the smile that creeps onto his face when he sees you sprawled out in the small cot, the child laying directly on your chest. He enjoys the sight and hopes it’s one he’ll see more often. He realises he’s been standing there quite a while when the child stirs and babbles up at him, and you wake up from the movement. Mando panics for a split second, worried you’d be offended by him standing there watching you, but your smile calms him  


“Morning, Mando.” your voice was laced with sleep as you spoke.  


“Good morning. I hope you slept well.” You nodded in reply. You rubbed your eyes and watched as the child climbed down from the bed and moved over to Mando, arms raised. Mando lifted him slowly and held him close to his chest.  


“I will fly the ship a bit closer to town while you get ready, then we can retrieve your things.” He spoke calmly, though he could feel his heart hammering underneath the Beskar. His mind was running a mile a minute, ‘what if she changed her mind?’, ‘she’s thought about it and realised what a stupid decision she made last night and just wants to go home now’.  


He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard your simple reply, “Sounds good.”  


He breathed a sigh of relief under the helmet, and quickly climbed the ladder to the cockpit, starting the engine, and slowly flying a little closer to the town. You found your way to the fresher and tidied yourself up a bit. You could wait until later to have a shower, once you had all your things.  


Mando was waiting by the ramp when you reappeared, giving you a curt nod of his helmet when you smiled at him., “All ready to go?”  


“Sure!” you followed him down the ramp and watched as the crib followed the pair of you through the town.  


You stopped at your dealership first, sifting through your workstation, picking up the rest of your tools and belongings you’d left there. You left the keys and all the business paperwork showing you’d signed the business over on the station next to yours, which belonged to your highest-ranking employee. He probably wouldn’t be too happy to return from a week of drinking to find he now owned the dealership, but you didn’t have to deal with the aftermath, so you weren’t entirely bothered.  
You took one last look around the place, reminiscing on the life you made for yourself in these walls. You were pretty proud of yourself, you had to admit. While you didn’t make an awful lot of money, you ran a pretty good business, and you were kinda sad to just leave it all like this. But you’d been wanting to leave Er’Kit for years, and you finally had the means to. You’d be stupid to pass the opportunity up.  


“Everything okay?” you were roused from your thoughts by the modulated voice you’d grown quickly used to.  


“… yeah. It’s just gonna be weird not waking up every morning to come and sit at that station all day,” you looked over at your now bare station, “I’ll miss some of the regulars here.”  


“Are you sure you want to do this?” he spoke softly, and you almost swore you heard the worry in his voice.  


You turned back to face Mando, smiling. It didn’t quite reach your eyes, but you were genuinely happy.  


“Yes. I made a life for myself here, but it wasn’t the life I truly wanted. It was just… it was just the life I had to live in the meantime until I could afford to get off of this planet and find my place elsewhere in the galaxy. And now I’ve got that chance, thanks to you.” Your smile had reached your eyes once you’d finished speaking, and Mando relaxed once more.  


You walked out of the shop for what would be the final time. You gave the doorway a little pat on your way out, and you didn’t look back. You walked Mando over to your place. It was very small, pretty much just a small bedroom (if you could even call it that, it was simply a raised area of the floor with a blanket on it), fresher, and kitchen, but it was homely in a weird way. You grabbed a few bags and started filling them with clothes, items for the fresher, little trinkets and anything you found of importance. You found a small little pair of dice on a chain when rooting through your things, and in the corner of your eyes, you spotted a little pair of green ears perk up. You walked over to the crib and handed the dice to the child, who babbled and chewed on them. You smiled and turned back to the room, carrying on packing your life up into bags. Mando smiled at the action, again thinking about how happy the child was around you. He almost thought of the three of you as a weird little found family, but mentally scolded himself for getting ahead of himself.  


This place was harder to say goodbye to compared to the dealership. You looked at the bare rooms, making a final check to make sure you’d left nothing important behind. Seeing everything so empty did make you feel sad, but you had to tell yourself you’d make a nice life, and a nicer home elsewhere. And it would be nicer than this, and it could be somewhere you could actually imagine living the rest of your days, rather than praying for the day you get to leave. Once again, you gave the doorway a little pat as you walked out. Mando helped with some of your stuff on the short walk back to the Crest.  


The walk was quiet, which wasn’t surprising. It was pretty early, and there weren’t many people moving about the town. You’d also quickly learned that Mando wasn’t much of a talker, so much of the walk was spent in silence. On arrival at the Crest, he started to put your bags in his quarters, where you’d slept the previous night.  


“I can’t stay in there again. I insist. I’ll make up a cot out here, you need your own space to rest, not just the cockpit. You need the privacy, because of your helmet. That way, you can sleep knowing I won’t see your face accidentally. Please.” you put your own bags down in the middle of the hull, and he slowly brought the ones he was holding back over to you.  


“It is sweet of you to think of me, but are you sure you will be okay?”  


“You saw my room back at my place. It wasn’t really much of a cot back there, I’ll be fine. Honestly.” You pried your bags out of his hands and let them drop to the floor. You held onto his hands for a few seconds, before smiling up at him and letting them go.  


He looked down at his now empty hands, already missing the warmth of yours. He excused himself to the cockpit, and started the engine up, entering the coordinates for Nevarro and boosting the ship into hyperdrive. He thought of how considerate you were about his privacy. Nobody had every cared about it before or made an effort to help him keep his face hidden. Most people were itching to see underneath the helmet. Yet here you were sacrificing your own comfort because you already understood what his way of life meant to him. He knew you were different. And he didn’t want to admit it, but he already found himself falling for you.  


You sorted through your stuff, taking a small empty area in the corner of the hull and turning it into your own quarters, smirking when you felt the ship shift into hyperdrive. Not bad work for a ship this old, you thought to yourself.  


Mando put the ship on autopilot and descended the ladder. He heard the water running in the fresher, and saw the little space you’d made for yourself in the corner. It was unassuming, and he had a small frown on his face when he looked at it. He thought for a minute, before shuffling some crates around to make more room for you. He also shifted them so it gave you a bit of a wall, so you could have a little privacy. He made a mental note to stop off at a marketplace somewhere and actually find a cot for you, and maybe a dividing curtain or something else in lieu of a door.  


You came out of the fresher, in a new set of clean clothes, and feeling much better now you’d ridden yourself of the grime that had accumulated from the job in Mando’s cockpit yesterday. You walked over to where you’d set your things up, and stopped in your tracks when you saw that Mando had rearranged the crates to give you a semblance of your own quarters, rather than just your things on the floor out in the open. You smiled and slowly walked closer, inspecting his work. He really was a thoughtful man, and his actions continued to shock you. He was yet again, proving to be different from anything you’d read about the Mandalorian creed.  


You climbed the ladder to the cockpit and settled in the passenger seat, smiling when Mando turned to nod at you, “Thank you.” You said softly, and you wondered if he actually heard you for a brief second.  


“For what?” he turned around to face you.  


“A lot, really. For getting me off that planet, for starters. And being so nice to me. But also for shifting all that stuff around down there to make it seem a little more like actual quarters. It’s not much but it already feels more homely than my actual home down on Er’Kit. So… thank you.” You trailed off, worried you were rambling.  


“You’re welcome. This is as much your home now as it is mine.” He nodded once again and turned back to face the control panel.  


You smiled and settled more into your chair, watching the stars go by in the window, already getting used to life aboard the Crest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you have any suggestions or ideas for something specific you'd like to see in future chapters, leave a comment and I'll be happy to try to incorporate them!


End file.
